Green Tomatoes and Aceto Balsmico Jam - Why not?!

I never ate green tomatoes. I only saw the movie. So I was surprised when I stumble upon bench with green tomatoes last Sunday on Dolac (the biggest open market in Zagreb). I remember reading about green tomatoes contest at Apartment Therapy, so I thought: "Why not?!"

The farmer who sold them told me that they are used for pickling, but I was feeling little more adventurous than that. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to play with my green tomatoes during the weekend so, once again, I had to improvise. I, literally, run trough Google search results for "green tomatoes" and end up with something completely new.

I decided to do some kind of jam, but I discovered that I do not have any lemon, and all of the green tomatoes jam recipes I found used lemon. Since it was Sunday, late at night, I decided to use Aceto Balsamico instead of lemon. And what a great combination Aceto Balsmico and green tomatoes turn out to be.

I have to admit I'm really very proud of this one because it was complete improvisation with something I've never not just cooked but not even tasted before.

Green Tomatoes and Aceto Balsmico Jam

5 green tomatoes

Aceto Balsamico

Brown Shugar

3 pieces of Clove

2,5 gr gelatin

cinnamon, pimenta, honey

In a stainless bowl, layer thin slices of green tomatoes and dark brown sugar, sprinkle with Aceto balsamico. let macerate overnight.

This is how it looked in the morning.

The next day, separate tomatoes from liquid. Put liquid into pan. Add amount of water equal to amount of liquid from tomatoes . Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes, cloves, cinnamon, piment and more sugar (the amount of sugar depends of your taste. I added less sugar but I did add more honey at the end to make it sweeter).

Cook jam for one hour, boiling briskly and stirring so it doesn’t burn.

Mix the gelatin with 3 spoons of cold water and leave it for 10 minutes to swell up.

Take the tomatoes mixture off the heath. Add one spoon of honey. Add gelatin and stir for additional 5 - 10 minutes until gelatin melt completely.

Transfer to a warmed sterile jars.

Late SHF entry - Fig brad: HIB

As so often in my life, I'm late again, but I hope Cream Puffs in Venice will accept my entry for SHF 35 since it is delicious one.

It is traditional welcoming sweet from island of Vis - HIB. It is purely natural product, full of taste and aroma, hight nutritional value and with such a remarkable history.

Original recipe is dated in pre-Roman period. It was prepared by peasants using only dry figs and natural preservative - fennel. It was further more preserved by dehydration method (sun dried) and for special occasions enhanced with walnuts.
Fig was very popular sweetener in time before sugar was brought to Europe by Arabs in 8th century. That's way so many traditional Mediterranean cakes are made with figs, honey, raisins.

In island of Vis Hib is traditionally served for Christmas together with domestic brandy.

It can be find in other parts of coastal Croatia too, under the name Smokvenjak and it is made with almonds (Mljet), or raisins (Cres)... It can be find in form of salami or small balls too..

In island Cres Smokvenjak is consumed with bread instead of salami and it was traditional food of islands farmers and shepherds who would carried while working in the fields, olive and wine yards or in pastures. It is usually formed into pyramid-like form. It was ideal food which they could keep for days thanks to it natural preservation, and thanks to its hight nutrition value it gave them strength and energy for their hard work.

Ingredients:

dry figs, walnuts, fennel, domestic brandy, sun, rosemary, bay leafs

Originally dry figs were grinded in mortar with pastle but I used electrical processor to grind figs and the walnuts (make it 90:10 ratio).

I toasted the walnuts in advance since they are very oily.

During the grinding add little of fennel now and then so it spreads evenly thru the mixture.

Knead the mixture as a dough, add few drops of domestic brandy to help you form the small "scone".

Leave to dry in the sun for ten days, turning it regularly. Be aware to protect it from flies

After ten days packet it in paper, in box together with herbs: rosemary, bay leafs and fennel to give it more aroma.

You can see step by step photo recipe here.

Decoding Nicky Hilton feast - Octopus salad

We will start decoding Nicky Hilton feast with the recipe for Octopus salad.

The basic recipe for octopus salad is very simple: clean the octopus and cook it until fork tender. Leave it to cool. Cut it into bite size pieces. Mix olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, garlic and and salt and pour over sliced octopus. Leave it in the cool place for several hours before serving.

Well, although this recipe says all you need to do to prepare excellent octopus salad, actually it does not say anything. All the important secrets, which often can't be scientifically approved, are left hidden.

Cleaning

First of all, if you are lucky enough to have hunted octopus yourself or bought it still alive, you will have to clean it. The best way to clean it is to turn it's body inside out by inserting two fingers inside the body. Pull out internal organ and stomach suck with fingers. Afterwards, remove beak (which you will find in the center where tentacles meets) and push the eyes out. Rinse the octopus and continue the preparation.

Other method is to cut around beak and removing internal organ, stomach suck and beak all at once.

Tenderizing

To avoid rubbery and chewy octopus you will have to do at least one of the following:

- If you have hunted the octopus, beat it several times against rock as soon as you catch it (you can do this in your kitchen too, using the wooden kitchen hammer);

- put it in the freezer for at least two hours or over the night;

- remove it from cooking water before or after the phase in which it gets rubbery (yea, right!)

- Cook it with a cork in the pot;

- Precook the tentacles: Put the water to boil. Holding the octopus body, put the tentacles in water and then pull it out. Tentacles will curl. Repeat this 4 or 5 times. Afterwards, put the octopus in cold salted water, slowly bring it to boil for about 90 minutes (depending of the size).

- Leave it to cool in the water in which it was cooked;

- Before cooking, cut into the "root" of the tentacle with the sharp knife. It will cut the nerves which will "relax" tentacles and it will result with tender meat at the end.

Cooking

- for the octopus of 1 kg takes about one and a half hour of cooking. Smaller octopus take less and bigger more cooking time;

- Some cook octopus in unsalted water since salt can hared the meat;

- Some like to put sliced lemon or small amount of vinegar in the cooking water;

- Some like to cook octopus in half water, half red wine vinegar,

Skinning

Some like to remove the skin but I prefer to leave it since it's very tasteful (if skin goes off during the cooking, it shows that octopus is not fresh).

If you need larger amount of salad, you can add potatoes (carefully wash potatoes and cook whole, unpeald together with octopus. How long to cook potatoes? Add potatoes to octopus according to size and needed cooking time).

What method of preparation to choose it's up to you!